Performing Identity: The Public Presentation of Culture and Ethnicity among Filipinos in Hawai'i

Abstract

This paper interrogates the relationship between place and identity among Filipinos in Hawai'i. In the paper, I analyze Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa, one of numerous events and productions in Hawai'i and elsewhere in the United States that celebrated the centennial anniversary of Philippine independence from Spain in 1998. I argue that Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa illustrates one of the ways in which recent immigrants, particularly young Filipinos (theatrically) perform narratives which produce and distribute ideas and ideologies about community, culture and identity. Borrowing from Myerhoff, I understand cultural productions like Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa as types of “definitional ceremonies” which dramatize cultural and ethnic identity claims, constructing and enacting what it means to be “Filipino” and at the same time addressing issues of power, voice and visibility.